"Past Lives," the A24 film that has been nominated for five Golden Globes, might send you into a tearful spiral about true love and destiny. It's had that effect on many — including star Greta Lee.
"I cry watching it, too," she tells TODAY.com. "You wouldn't think you would cry watching your own movie. But even when I think about the last scene — it's like making myself cry on demand."
Lee, 40, shares that "Past Lives" was inspired by a true story. The film's writer and director, Celine Song, once found herself sitting at a New York City bar, flanked by her husband and her childhood sweetheart. This configuration became the opening scene of the film.
In the film, Lee’s character Nora reunites in New York with Hae Sung (Teo Yoo), whom she hasn’t seen in decades since their childhood in South Korea. Nora, a playwright, is now married to writer Arthur (John Maguro) in the U.S., and is forced to reckon with what her life could have been like if her family never moved to Canada.
Lee says it was also Song's idea for her and Yoo to try some method acting — Song suggested the two didn't touch at all in real life, until they were acting in the scene where their characters reunited in New York.
"Initially, to be honest, we were a little skeptical because we wanted to remind her, like ... she does know we're acting, right? That this is this is our pretend anyways. But we're so glad we went along with this experiment of hers, because it made things really heightened," Lee says.
"When someone tells you can't touch someone — don't hug, don't shake hands — it makes it weird, in this sort of excellent way that was necessary for us to conjure this deep connection that potentially spans multiple lifetimes. I mean, that was a tall order. The experiment helped for us," she continues with a smile.
The film culminates in the final scene, with Nora and Hae Sung standing and staring at each other on a street corner in the East Village as he waits for his Uber to take him to the airport.
"I thought they were grabbing their coats to leave, but they were starting to cry. I could not believe it.”
Greta Lee on the first time she saw Past Lives with an audience
After the car pulls up, Hae Sung asks, "What if this is a past life as well, and we are already something else to each other in our next life?"
Nora says she doesn't know, and Hae Sung replies, "See you then."
The pair hug goodbye and Nora walks a few steps back to her apartment, where she crumples into her husband's arms and cries as he walks her up the stairs, back to their home — and her real life.
Lee says she always hoped "Past Lives" would resonate, but it wasn't until the first time she saw the film with an audience at theSundance Film Festival that she saw how profoundly people reacted to the ending.
"That whole experience was so surreal. It was such a vulnerable moment for us to share this really personal film in front of an audience for the first time," she says. "I remember at the end, I thought that people were going to walk out because everyone was shifting in their seats and reaching for things. I thought they were grabbing their coats to leave, but they were starting to cry. I could not believe it."
As the film rolled out into theaters in 2023, Lee says she was approached by people around the world, from Australia to India, who told her they understood the "caught-between-lives" feeling Nora experiences.
"I think that it's just this woman," Lee says of her character. "She is just a regular person who is trying to suss out what it means to be alive. What is love? What is fate? What are all the choices that add up to make one person's life? And that, I think, cuts through a lot of noise. It's something that people — I mean, truly anyone — can relate to."
She added that after she read the script she knew the project would be special, but the continuous heartfelt response from those who have watched it continues to blow her away.
"When you’re making something — once in a while — it does feel really special and sacred. It feels like, This is something that it could be legendary," she says. "It's a mix of having in your heart, (and) really believing, this feels tangibly like something. Something that’s even hard to put into words."
“She is just a regular person who is trying to suss out what it means to be alive."
Greta Lee on Nora
Lee says there was "so much" wisdom she took from her character into her real life.
"The essence of her that I loved immediately, when I read the script and then getting to play her, is she really honors her own life and her relationship to love," she says. "It's not this idea of love being this actionable item or a path — that there's a right or a wrong. It's something that really exists on its own."
"I love that she is so in love with her own future and her own life," she adds. "As a woman myself, a modern woman, that is something that resonates so deeply, and continues to now that I've gotten to play her."
Lee, who has starred in TV shows like "The Morning Show" and "Girls," shared on TODAY she had never been nominated for an acting award until earlier this month, when Golden Globe nominations were announced and she was on the list for best performance by a female actor in a motion picture.
She says her entire experience, from originally not getting the part in the movie, to having "Past Lives" nominated for awards, reflects the idea of the film itself.
"Sometimes your dream just ends up even better than you could have ever imagined," she said on TODAY. "I feel like all of this reflects the movie — it’s this idea of 'inyeon' and destiny. This is a Korean word — 'inyeon.' My whole experience in getting involved with the film, it really is, it is this idea of fate."
